February 20 @ 7:00 pm - 8:30 pm

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Professor Vered Sakal of Tel Aviv University offers this lecture on a little-known aspect of Jewish history.
When Algeria came under French occupation in 1830, the change of political regime transformed Jewish life from a legally autonomous community to a voluntary association – a metamorphosis that was critical to Jewish political modernity. Communal leaders could no longer rule directly, and had to find new strategies of governance since matters like marriage, divorce, and inheritance moved from rabbinic jurisdiction to that of French colonial law. In this talk, Vered Sakal will reveal the inner workings of this religio-political transition through the lens of one rabbi who lived and wrote through it.
This event is part of this semester’s public programming from Penn’s Herbert D. Katz Center for Advanced Judaic Studies. Lectures and discussions are offered by Katz Center research fellows and colleagues, in partnership with local host institutions, in connection with this year’s focus on Jewish politics. More information about the whole series here: https://katz.sas.upenn.edu/public-programs